Getting acclimatised
 

Hi

I was wondering if anyone who has moved from the UK to Australia (particularly Queensland) could offer any opinions on how long it takes to get acclimatised, purely in terms of the weather.

We are moving to Brisbane at the end of September and although we'll have a couple of months before the really hot weather hits, I'm a bit concerned about how we'll cope as we've been dying in 35 degrees in London!

Thanks

The last time we went was in the January and it was 37 degrees, and I know that it sounds difficult to believe, but it wasn't that heavy oppresive heat that you tend to get here. I am sure that as you go further North, it would be hell and at times unbearable when it hit the 40s.
This was in WA and only went as far North as Perth.

Whisky

I agree with Whisky. The heat in Brisbane is totally different. I'm sweltering at the minute with the weather only being 28, but out there 32 is very comfortable. My daughter loved it too, being dressed in only pants helped though i think!!!

When i was out there in Jan 2001 i kept a diary of the temperature and it is full of 29, 30, 32, 36! and 25. Under the temperature of 25, I've actually written "Oh my god, I'm in Australia and I have goosebumps from being COLD!!!"

Yes, I found it very cool in the evenings, and had to change into trousers and a light cardi.

Whisky

Because our move is so close now I'm suddenly finding myself worrying about stuff i should have thought of a year ago!

I can't imagine being comfortable in 37 degrees Whisky but i am very happy to take your word for it that its a "different kind" of heat.

If not I'll have to follow your daughter's example Brisbec and wear only my pants!

My boyfriend will be glad to hear that the temp drops at night. he's quite "furry" and really can't sleep at the moment he's so hot. The fact that we have a £10 electric fan from B&Q and not air conditioning might be part of the problem admittedly!

I had to go out and buy another blanket for the bed I was sleeping in at night because I felt cold.

I have bought some light quilts to take with me for the Summer, but after reading peoples other posts on how cold it feels in the house in the winter, have decided to take my heavy quilts from here too.

Whisky

Hi whisky

Sorry, I should probably know this but where are you headed? Back to WA?

Would you or other members recommend we take coats and jumpers to Brisbane? We are trying to not take anything too heavy but don't want to be ill equipped or fork out for alot of stuff we already own.

I agree, heat is different to U.K. and Australia. The U.K. heat tends to be more humidity than the Australia heat, however you do get some humid days in Australia.

I dont think you need coats or jumpers in QLD, you will need a jumper if you are heading down sydney way in the winter.

We aren't sure where we will settle, but my Brother lives at Mandurah, so we will be going there after landing in Perth.

I don't know about Brisbane, so really don't know.

If I had a decent coat, I would probably take it just in case, but mine will be the last thing I put in the bin as I shut the door behind me, and then buy something if I need one out there. I am sure that some sort of coat would be needed at times as they do have wind and rain.

If I hadn't been before and hadn't been on this forum, I would probably have thrown everything away, but knowing differently now, there won't be much I leave behind.
You pay for a container, not the weight, so I am taking everything, and if I don't need it there, I will get rid of it then.

Its no good wishing that you had brought this and that when you get there, and realising you gave away so much at these Car boot sales, when you now have to replace them.

Whisky

Ah 37 thats lovely!?
 

I have an Uncle and aunt living on Tamworth ACT and there children my cousins i guess? live in Brisi. They tell me that they cant stand the Humidity in the Brisbane area due to the close prox to the sea and creeks rivers etc, obviously causing Humidity. They tell me it gets so bad they have trouble working sleeping concent....:zzz: . Hey they do live only mins from the outback proper and it is very dry.

What the heck I say there air con is so much better than ours and it is reverse cycle so it keeps you warm when you have become acliemd.

Get over there if its to much Perth is nice that time of year



Good Luck we are not at all Green with envy:p :p :p :p :p :p :p

When we came here we left all our warm clothes behind in UK thinking it never got cold here. Wrong!

We are just outside of Sydney and get heavy frost but no snow but do get the cold winds sometimes when it snows in the mountains.

Had a holiday up to Cairns in Qld in August last year. We were in t shirts and shorts but the locals up there were wearing coats!

You wont need snow gear there but I would definately take some warm stuff with you
Carol:cool:

You'll be best advised to take some sort of cold weather clothing or buy it out there as Brisbane sometimes gets the tail end of the rain monsoon thingys!!!
We had hailstones the size of golf balls the last time i was out there and we had to batton down the hatches when the wind blew up.

You'll probably end up buying a Drizabone jacket, good for keeping out the rain.

Just remember that Bris is sub-tropical so just about anything could be expected (even when wearing pants!!!)

You will need jumpers and stuff in Brisbane - Carl spent several days lately with the heating on there. It does get cold!
Also, it really IS a different sort of heat, though neither of us can explain the difference - oppressive cound be the closest I can come up with. . He's just arrived at Heathrow and is flat out cos its so hot - and he said straight away that the heat is different.
You don't feel as washed out by it in Brisbane, also everywhere is more ready to deal with it - air con etc.

Good to know the heat is different.

It is amazing over the weekend the amount of people who have said ` ohh isn`t it hot, you won`t like it in Oz, its hotter there`

Other half has been saying `maybe we should look at NZ` oh no i have said Oz or nothing.


footie chick xx

Er.....No I don't think so. Brisbane is sub-tropical an consequently experiences high humidity rates. If you are thinking that Brisbane has a 'dry' heat then you are way off the mark. Sorry.

Its not a "dry" heat exactly, though I admit to using that word myself to describe it, its just less of an oppressive head-ache inducer than we have here. And although its humid, you truly don't feel it as much. I would rather be there in 37 degrees (as I have been) than here; also because things are geared up for it, it is so much easier to cool down - so much more air con as I said before, cold drinks more readily available - and I mean COLD - not ones put in the shop fridge 10 minutes before.
More houses have air con or lots of fans; try and buy a fan here at present, no chance! The UK is not used to this heat, thats why we wilt.
And there is also the psychological side to it - over there people do not spend there lives walking round talking about how hot it is - hence, they don't notice so much. Try it here - think of cold things, don't think of the heat, and don't make it the thing around which all thoughts revolve. Think of sitting with your feet under a cold waterfall....................the less the heat factor is shoved at you, the less aware of it you become.

By the way, I'm not a psychologist or anything, its a persnal theory and it works for me, and for friends I've told about it. Worth a try. .....

Thanks everyone!

I will certainly be taking some warm clothes and have been practising the "mind over matter" technique where the heat is concerned!

I do know what people say when they call it a different heat, I always say that the cold in Newcastle upon Tyne is different to the cold in London - i.e not as damp and easier to bear. So maybe it'll be something similar with Brisbane.

Whatever the weather I'm not going to complain, I know how lucky we are to be moving to Brisbane and I promise to remember all you green people when I'm there! :p

[Would you or other members recommend we take coats and jumpers to Brisbane?

A friend of mine moved to Brisbane on 1st May, so is going through their winter right now. Surprisingly, she is wearing fleeces and jumpers, although I think you can dump the hat, scarves and gloves.

Beverley
:cool:

Beverley,
Certainly, yes, take the jumpers and jackets. I was quite surprised when I asked my Bloke, but he said I will need jumpers - gets quite chilly at nights in winter, and although snow is highly unlucky it hits 1-2 degrees at times. Further inland it can get colder still - Ipswich, Toowoomba, Kingaroy etc can go down below freezing.

pollyanna - your view - "yes, admmitedly it IS humid in Brissy, but it is more bareable" is bang on if I may so. Yes - Brissy is not exactly a dry heat - but 35 there is more bearable than 35 here. And down south in Sydney I found 30 degrees a "normal" summers day. I was cold when it was 23ish. wore fleeces when it was just below 20..

If this UK heatwave went on for 1 month i think we'd all be surprised how aclimatised we would come...my brother has returned from iraq and he hasnt been lying on a towel in a pool of sweat in bed like me and the gf have...


badgers

We lived in Perth for two years and never got used to the heat!

Wellington is rather cooler!

Just make sure you get somewhere with Air Con!

Helen

You need jumpers and light jackets for Brisbane winter due to the cold nights. The summer humidity can be quite unpleasant, wet towels don't dry overnight for example and a short walf can leave yu pouring with sweat. That said, roll on summer.

Brisbane is sub - tropical. Of course it is humid. Saying English heat is more humid is just wishful bloody thinking. Humidity is usually from October till March.

What its about is dealing with it. Airconditioned home, essential, Australians may see this as a luxury I see it as civilised. Airconditioned car. Shops are already airconditioned as are most offices. Loose cotton clothing, no synthetics, and 2 litres of water a day like it is your religion! Loose weight, overweight people here puff and sweat etc its disgusting. Shade becomes a way of life, nobody here seeks the sun like in the UK. You also change your life to take advantage of the cooler early moring hours. Afternoon storms often hit in summer and the tropical rain is an absolute pleasure, its heavier than anything you have ever seen in the Uk, may only last half an hour but it just washes everything down. Swimming pool is also a big bonus.

Why do people put up with the humidity? because the other months are fantastic, dry low 20's, sunny every day, 6 weeks of cool nights and thats it, no real winter like Perth and Melbourne.

Schools close down from mid December to end January, which gives kids a nice break from the heat too. Living near the sea also gives a breeze which makes Coastal areas popular.

Re: Getting acclimatised
 

I can only speak from my own experience, but I reckon about 2 years.

I have been here since April 2001.

Winter:
When I got here my body was expecting summer and what I got was a Brisbane winter which was perfect - clear skies, warm sunny days, beautiful weather. The evenings did get a little cool, but that first year I was still in shorts and T shirt pretty well all the time (my mother in law would always ask "aren't you cold?"). A lot of the houses in Brisbane are made of wood and raised off the ground (a little - lowset or a lot - highset). This design feature is for coping with the hot weather - it does not help with the two months of cooler weather that they call winter. Brick built houses tend to be better for the cool weather as brick is better as an insulator.
The hardest thing is the difference between the daytime temp and the late evening/early morning temp, so if you dress appropriately for the day you might find it a little cool in the evening.

Spring:
Spring is perfect. The days are getting warmer, the nights are no longer "cold", the humidity is fine. If anything, I found it a bit too hot - especially whenever I was doing anything outside (like cutting the grass etc.) At work I tended to avoid walking any distance in town after about 9am otherwise I would turn up at customer sites dripping sweat. Whenever I mentioned how hot I found it, everyone kindly pointed out "if you find this hot, you will die in February".

Summer:
My first summer here we were living in a brick house until mid Jan. The downstairs stayed beautifully cool, the bedrooms got a bit hot and sticky at night. We had a pedestal fan in the bedroom and would lie on the bed with no covers and spray water mist into the path of the fan. It hits your body and then evaporates in the moving air, cooling you down. During this time I was doing some renovations to a house and it was a nightmare. Not only very hot, but also high humidity. I would turn up at the house at 8am, get out of my airconditioned car, walk in and pick up a saw or hammer or whatever and within about a minute I would be having to towel down to remove the sweat (before actually doing any work). Thankfully, it was only that bad for about 2 weeks. Sadly, those were the two weeks I spent on working on the house. That house was a wooden highset - like a furnace in the summer, like a fridge in the winter - all to do with the design and position. It had aircon in the main bedroom so was just bearable (the aircon was old, so very noisy - tended to run it for a few hours to get the room cool, then turn it off and hope to be asleep before the room warmed up).

Autumn:
There is not really much of an autumn, but by late Feb things are back to perfect - as long as you have aircon in the car and can park in the shade if you are going to have to get into the car during the day.

My second winter was much the same - I still did not feel the cold and could not understand everyone wearing jumpers and jackets. We did have a weekend down at Jindabyne to go skiing - it was -4 with a wind chill taking it to -18. Even well wrapped up that was bloody cold - my wife (born and bred in Qld) nearly died - she had sheets of ice forming on her face.

Last summer we were in our current house - a low set colonial style. It has wrap around verandahs and is down near the bay so it gets cooling breezes and is shaded from the sun. There is no aircon but it never became unbearable in the heat - I do not think the weather was as bad last summer. We have an office built into one of our metal sheds and that would be bad except it has aircon (I feel like a real Aussie - I have an air conditioned shed :) - how cool is that?). Also, we have an outside spa bath, so most nights would cool down in that for a while before bed. If you can get a place with a pool that will undoubtedly help in the summer.

This winter we have had a couple of weeks of quite cold weather (down to 4 or 5 some nights). I think I am getting acclimatised (blood has thinned out or something) because I have been putting a sweat shirt on and we have been lighting our fire. We even had to go and buy an electric blanket - something I never owned in the UK - in fact I had never even seen one before :)

Having said all that - there are clothes I brought with me that used to get well worn in the UK that have not been used here:
Barbour coat
Fleece jacket
GoreTex jacket
Thick woolen jumpers
Thin woolen jumpers
Thick long sleeve shirts
Several of my thicker business suits

and I have had to buy more shorts, singlets and a decent hat.

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

DagBoy

Re: Getting acclimatised
 

Totally depends on the person.

I needed to acclimatised to the cold when I came to Aus believe it or not... I landed in winter (in NSW at the time). I came here from after living in Sing which is warm and far more humid than Brisbane all year round.

So I'll go on my first experience of settling into "humid" Sing from Britain (which is far worse than Brisbane for humidity) - it took me about two weeks to adapt. Family visiting.... mum in law hated it... couldn't cope with the humidity and heat, very grumpy... felt like murdering her.. came close to it:)!. My mum who never sunbathes etc,burns easily etc . loved it... adapted in a matter of only two or three days, quicker than myself.... Hubby he hates humidity!!! Still does even after 11 years of living in humid places, he moaned in Sing and moans here in Brisbane too during the summer, but yet he feels the cold during the Brisbane winters like myself.. like a bear with a sore head when the humidity is bad. Me - it doesn't bother me. It effects different people in different ways. So nobody can tell you how well you will adapt to it, and how long etc.

cheers

Thanks guys!

From your responses it does seem to depend on the person - either 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 years to acclimatise!

I think I will get family to visit in Spring, thus avoiding murderous impulses.

I don't think we'll be able to afford a pool in the inner suburbs of Brisbane but we will make sure we get aircon or at least a large ceiling fan.

Well I'm now sitting here with a bloke who is moaning like hell about how hot the UK is, and why haven't I bought a fan, and why haven't any of the shops got ice; and I'm about to go and spend £200 on a flaming air con unit that I'll have to dump in October when I leave - right now even Singapore sounds good to me.:mad:

Sure you took home the right bloke? The real one might be wandering Heathrow recuperating from a sandbagging.